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Electing the Speaker of the PA-House-plank-DemRising
Democracy Rising PA Calls for Open Speaker’s Election Source: Tim Potts, Co-Founder, Democracy Rising PA, tim@democracyrisingpa.com, 717-243-8570; 717-571-9471 (cell) :Monday, December 4, 2006 HARRISBURG (Dec. 4, 2006) – Calling the election of the Speaker of the PA House “the first official vote our Representatives will cast on our behalf,” Democracy Rising PA Co-Founder Tim Potts today said all State Representatives should declare immediately who they intend support for Speaker and why. Speaking at a news conference in the state Capitol, Potts said, “If our Representatives are truly going to represent us when they elect a Speaker, they should know what we think, and we should know what they think, long before January 2nd.” The state’s Constitution requires the General Assembly to convene at noon on the first Tuesday of January each year. In years following a general election, the Representatives’ first order of business after being sworn in is to elect a Speaker. Typically, the majority party decides who it will nominate for Speaker during its secret November leadership elections. Unlike secret leadership elections, however, the election of the Speaker in January is a recorded vote. Potts said that the Speaker’s election should be a public contest between declared contenders who ask for the support of citizens, through their elected Representatives, for an agenda that strives to give Pennsylvania the best state government in America. “The election of a Speaker has been an inside game for far too long. This year, that’s not good enough. There are way too many inside games in this building,” he said. Potts also called the Speaker’s election a referendum on the decades of leadership of the two presumed contenders, Philadelphia Republican John Perzel and Greene County Democrat H. William DeWeese. House Republicans nominated Perzel for Speaker in November’s caucus elections when preliminary vote counts gave Republicans the majority by a one-seat margin. Last week, the final count in a disputed election gave Democrats a one-seat majority. DeWeese is expected to receive his party’s nomination for Speaker. However, Potts said, many of the 201 other Representatives have experience that qualifies them as contenders for Speaker. “The election of the Speaker is a chance for the Representatives we just elected to hold John Perzel and Bill DeWeese accountable for their arrogance, for their public deceit and their private treachery, for their waste of tax dollars, for their secrecy, for their perks and per diems and pensions, for their limousines and airplanes, for their insults to people who milk cows or create tattoos for a living, for their vindictiveness toward those who disagree with them, for their too-cozy relationship with lobbyists and their too-distant relationship with citizens, for being too self-absorbed and ungrateful to give citizens the high quality of government they want, and for the Pay Raise and all the other times they have violated the Constitution they swore to obey,” Potts said. Potts said every Representative who takes office in January should declare as soon as possible whether he or she supports Perzel or DeWeese or whether the Representative is undecided and seeking another qualified candidate who “will put integrity, value for tax dollars, transparency and citizen confidence at the top of the agenda.” Candidates for Speaker also should state in detail where they stand on the many improvements needed to the House rules, Potts said. The adoption of rules usually is the second official vote Representatives cast after being sworn in. Among changes to the rules that dozens of Representatives and advocates suggested last summer are: · Making per diems a true reimbursement for actual expenses documented by receipts, not a second salary at taxpayer expense. · Requiring an up-to-date public accounting on the Internet of all expenditures by each member. · Making each Representative’s voting record easily, clearly and constantly available to any citizen who wants it. · Prohibiting “gut-and-run” legislation such as the Pay Raise. · Prohibiting lame-duck sessions. · Guaranteeing that each Representative gets a floor vote on at least one bill, which also guarantees that leadership can’t bury good ideas in committee forever. · Prohibiting late-night votes on any legislation. · Making all accounts, including Leadership accounts, subject to the Open Records Act and an independent audit using the highest standards of the auditing profession. Details (Potts’s complete remarks) Help Wanted: A Speaker Who Gets It By Constitutional mandate, the new session of the PA General Assembly will begin at noon on January 2nd, 2007, – the first Tuesday of the year. After the Department of State certifies the election returns, a judge administers the oath of office. Senators then proceed to elect a President Pro Tempore, and Representatives proceed to elect a Speaker of the House. In the House of Representatives, here’s how it went two years ago on January 4, 2005. Rep. Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, nominated Rep. John Perzel, R-Philadelphia, to be Speaker. Rep. Rick Geist, R-Blair, seconded the nomination, as did Rep. William Keller, D-Philadelphia, and former Rep. Tom Gannon, R-Delaware. Then former Rep. Roy Baldwin, R-Lancaster, moved that nominations be closed. Perzel was elected unanimously and without opposition. Is this the best way to choose one of the four most powerful public servants in Pennsylvania? Compare that with the idea of a public contest between declared contenders who ask for the support of citizens, through their elected Representatives, for an agenda that strives to give Pennsylvania the best state government in America. * Candidates for Speaker should state in detail where they stand on matters of integrity and on the many improvements needed to the House rules. For example, new rules could: 2. * Make per diems a true reimbursement for actual expenses documented by receipts, not a second salary at taxpayer expense. * Require an up-to-date public accounting on the Internet of all expenditures by each member. * Make each Representative’s voting record easily, clearly and constantly available to any citizen who wants it. * Prohibit gut-and-run legislation. * Prohibit lame-duck sessions. * Guarantee that each Representative gets a floor vote on at least one bill, which also guarantees that leadership can’t bury good ideas in committee forever. * Prohibit late-night votes on any legislation. * Make all accounts, including Leadership accounts, subject to the Open Records Act and an independent audit using the highest standards of the auditing profession. And many other needed reforms that would make lawmakers live by the same rules they impose on the rest of us. The election of a Speaker has been an inside game for far too long. This year, that’s not good enough. There are way too many inside games in this building. The election of a Speaker is not their election; it’s our election. We citizens have a stake in this and a right to tell our Representatives who we want and who we don’t want as Speaker. It’s time to exercise that right. It is, after all, the first official vote our Representatives will cast on our behalf. If they are truly going to represent us, they should know what we think, and we should know what they think, long before January 2nd. Finally, the election of the Speaker is a chance for the Representatives we just elected to hold John Perzel and Bill DeWeese accountable for their arrogance, for their public deceit and their private treachery, for their waste of tax dollars, for their secrecy, for their perks and per diems and pensions, for their limousines and airplanes, for their insults to people who milk cows or create tattoos for a living, for their vindictiveness toward those who disagree with them, for their too-cozy relationship with lobbyists and their too-distant relationship with citizens, for being too self-absorbed and ungrateful to give citizens the high quality of government they want, and for the Pay raise and all the other times they have violated the Constitution they swore to obey. 3. This election of the Speaker is, and should be, a referendum on their performance as leaders who have held positions of public trust for decades. All Representatives will be accountable for whether their vote on January 2nd truly represents the people who elected them. So today, we ask the media to inform citizens about this election by getting every Representative on the record, as soon as possible. Citizens should know who each Representative will support for Speaker on January 2nd and why. Will they support Bill DeWeese or John Perzel? Will they support someone else who will put integrity, value for tax dollars, transparency and citizen confidence at the top of the agenda? Or will they refuse to tell their constituents what they plan to do in their name? And then we should know whether each Representative will support changes to the rules with the goal of giving our citizens the most transparent and accountable legislative body in America. This is the Representatives’ second vote that will determine whether the House is on a trajectory to integrity. Better yet, we’re urging all Representatives not to wait for reporters or constituents to call but to issue a statement declaring who you support for Speaker and why, and what changes you require in the rules of the House. We have to end business as usual in Harrisburg, and this is the citizens’ next chance for positive change. We and our Representatives should use this chance for all it’s worth. Thank you. ** Sam Smith failed to win a majority vote in the May 2006 primary, winning with only 47.9% of the vote in a three-way race. Also, voters defeated Baldwin in May, 2006, electing Republican John Bear, and voters defeated Gannon in November, electing Democrat Bryan Lentz. category:Planks_from_elsewhere category:democracy